On Wed, 21 Jul 1999, Jim B wrote: > (Sorry for the non-Debian-specific question.) > > Can someone explain what this execute bit means? > > IOW, what is the difference between "s" (suid) and "S" (?)? > > I've tried irc and one guy said it was something to do with an old SysV > standard. Someone else said it's "super-suid" or suid without eXecute (but > how can you have suid without executing?). > > Can anyone enlighten me? > > (It's not in the info or man pages.)
It is in the info page. "info ls", then choose the "What information is listed" link, then scroll down to the -l option. Here's the quote: The permissions listed are similar to symbolic mode specifications (*note Symbolic Modes::.). But `ls' combines multiple bits into the third character of each set of permissions as follows: `s' If the setuid or setgid bit and the corresponding executable bit are both set. `S' If the setuid or setgid bit is set but the corresponding executable bit is not set.